If enhancing communications with your employees is on your list of resolutions, utilising digital technology can help you achieve this goal. Businesses that still rely on a “suggestion box” in the break room or some similarly out-of-date mechanism should consider adopting current technology to make employees feel more involved and part of the team.
An array of Digital Resources
The good news is, your employees are already using the types of digital resources you can incorporate in your efforts to improve communications. These resources include:
- Texting
- Chat rooms
- Video
- Social media
Instant messaging is so commonly used (from front-line employees to senior executives) that it is a “go-to” method for communicating important and timely information to your team. It’s also a useful tool for staying in touch with your remote workers.
Cloud-based mobile technology facilitates higher engagement among workers. Applying communications tools in this area often includes the benefits of enhanced data security. Also, cloud-based technology can be easily updated and upgraded as new software improvements become available.
Video platforms represent a particularly appealing way of improving communications. When you, as CEO or business owner, want to relay a message for the entire company, what better way than through video, where people can see and hear you simultaneously? No other platform offers the same kind of “face-to-face” authenticity – especially beneficial if you’re comfortable in front of a camera and know how to express yourself in terms your employees will best understand.
Getting Employees on Board
It’s critically important to design a comprehensive plan that familiarises employees with the communications technology best suited to your culture.
According to ITProPortal, such a plan should include “training programs, leadership workshops, counseling, best practises resources, templates, and customised advise and guidance.”
It may take time to implement, but when employees “get” that your goal is to streamline communication – and that you genuinely care about interacting with them – you’re likely to see a marked improvement in morale and, possibly, long-term employee retention.
Employee Solutions to Business Problems
Equally valuable are opportunities for team members to communicate with each other. For example, those involved in a new initiative – or tasked with finding solutions to a pressing business problem – will greatly benefit from being able to bounce ideas off each other in real-time.
Remember, your employees are the ones most intimately involved in the sales and distribution of your products or services. Frequently, they’re also the ones who regularly interact with customers, so they have a deeper understanding of the strengths and shortcomings of your offerings. If they’re asked to devise a solution, the chance to collaborate quickly and clearly through internal communications tools may result in just the solution your business needs to move forward.
At the same time, this communications platform should involve supervisors or managers as well. Great employee ideas can wither and die without managerial input and/or advocacy.
As Fast Company notes, “It’s important that new concepts are not just discussed among peers.” Managers should “be involved and feel connected to those suggestions from the very beginning,” because their advocacy can help ensure that those at the top will “implement the best ideas.”
Businesses armed with effective internal communications are often more successful at attracting and recruiting the quality talent your company seeks as well. That’s another reason to examine your various communications options and put the best system in place, in order to keep your employees productive and able to share key ideas with one another.